Sign-Up Time Continues for Free Recovery Cleanup on LBI

Nov 28, 2012

Homeowners on Long Beach Island can still sign up for free remediation/post-storm cleanup from the trained volunteers of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, which has been making its headquarters at Grace Calvary Church in Ship Bottom.

“It’s mold remediation. They need to get that out of their house. It’s behind the walls and it’s under the floors,” said Cheryl Marshall, on-site coordinator for the disaster relief team, which has volunteered its services all over the United States and Canada.

The team is also the group that used mobile kitchens sited on the mainland to cook hot meals handed out by the Red Cross. That service was suspended after Thanksgiving weekend to focus solely on the property recovery aspect.

This week, the group wants local residents to know that they will be here to do the cleanup “as long as the need is here, and as long as our volunteers keep giving of their time,” Marshall said.

The service is for all permanent homeowners of Long Beach Island, Marshall said. A valid New Jersey driver’s license is acceptable for identification.

To sign up, residents can come to Grace Calvary Church, 19th and the Boulevard, Ship Bottom, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.

The process works as follows: “The homeowner needs to make aplication with us. We send out an assessor to see exactly what it is that they need that we can do for them,” Marshall outlined.

“If they’re elderly or disasbled, we can come in and box up or carry out what they need to have taken out of the way. Then we locate the last rising of water and remove the walls 18 inches above that. And we remove the flooring that is the type of flooring that water has gotten underneath of. We go down to the subfloor. Then we powerwash everything and sanitize it, and it needs to sit a couple of months before they can put their sheetrock and flooring back in.”

Also, if there are any further questions, those interested may call Grace Calvary Church at 609-494-7777.

The relief organization established the post on LBI on Nov. 11. “At this point we are servicing up to 120 residents’ homes,” Marshall said.

The crew currently numbers about 60 volunteers who hail from as far away as South Carolina. They are credentialed, having paid to take classes in compliance with FEMA and state laws, Marshall said. The workers have also undergone background checks. Anyone wanting more information on the organization can Google North American Mission Board.

“We do it for the fellowship,” Marshall said. “We volunteer because Christ loves the world, and we want to show that through our actions.”